Dogtown for Marblehead, MA dog owners: daycare, boarding, grooming and training

Section 13-11 of Marblehead's bylaws keeps dogs off every public beach, athletic area, playground and park of the town between May 1 and October 1 each year, and out of public cemeteries all year. The exceptions are named: Chandler Hovey Park, Crocker Park, Fort Sewall, Fountain Park, Upper Seaside Park, Riverhead Beach and the town dog park stay open to dogs through the summer. A first offense in a calendar year costs $25 and a second $50.

Recreation and Parks draws a firmer line for fields and playgrounds: its answer to residents is that dogs are not allowed in any area used for athletics or as a playground, even on a leash, because bacteria from waste can make children ill. Devereux Beach on Ocean Avenue is not on the exception list, so it is closed to dogs from May 1 to October 1; Riverhead Beach, across the causeway, is open to them.

Everywhere else, section 13-5 applies: away from your own property a dog must be restrained by a leash of appropriate length, unless it is in the town dog park or on someone else's land with their consent. Those fines are also $25 for a first offense and $50 for a second within a calendar year, and the dog park is the one public place in town where the leash comes off.

The town dog park is the legal off-leash ground, and its rules are specific. Hours run sunrise to sunset, and the park is split into a side for small and sedentary dogs and a side for large and active ones. Dogs are leashed on the way in and out and run free inside, with prong, spike or choke collars taken off; they must be licensed with the tag on the collar and at least six months old, and females in heat stay home. Owners stay with their dogs the whole time and clean up after them, as the town's rules require.

For a woods walk, Lead Mills and Wyman Woods sit on the Salem line at the mouth of the Forest River, owned and managed by Marblehead and Salem: 42 acres and about 2 miles of trail, with limited parking on Lafayette Street at both entrances. Essex County Greenbelt lists dog walking among its uses. On the Marblehead side the town's leash bylaw applies, so the leash stays on.

From Abbot Hall, Route 114 takes you into Salem, where Route 1A carries you north over the bridge into Beverly. Join Route 128 north in Beverly and stay on it through Manchester-by-the-Sea into Gloucester until it ends; Eastern Avenue (Route 127) then runs about a mile to number 210. By our estimate the trip is about 40 minutes outside rush hour, and traffic through downtown Salem can add to it.

Marblehead is outside the Pup Van towns; ask us about pick-up, because the van's $10-each-way price is set for Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, and a Marblehead street is priced on request. If a pick-up cannot work, the evaluation morning is the only visit that has to fall on a weekday; after that, Saturdays are open for daycare too.